On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate is expected to vote on a health care bill — without knowing exactly what they’re voting on — and President Donald Trump made it blatantly obvious Tuesday morning that for any concerns senators might have about the bill they’re about to consider voting into law, he doesn’t care what they pass. He is ready, “pen in hand,” and willing to sign anything, “Repeal or Repeal & Replace.”
Trump tweets that he will sign literally any health care bill
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Trump’s health care tweets came in the midst of a furious early morning tweetstorm that covered a range of the president’s obsessions: Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “fake news,” the Russia investigation.
Mere hours after the presidents’ tweets, the Senate will take a procedural vote that would allow debate to continue on at least one bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, and possibly one to repeal and delay replacement. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell needs 50 out of the 52 Senate Republicans to vote for a health care bill, and to get to 50 votes, at least one drastic measure is already being taken: Sen. John McCain will return to Washington less than five days after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.
Trump appears to be trying all possible means to assert pressure to get a health care bill passed. Last week, he threatened Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, one of the first senators to publicly state his disapproval of the Republican health care bill, while they were sitting next to each other. “Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?” Trump said.
On Monday evening at the Boy Scouts 2017 National Jamboree in West Virginia, Trump suggested that he would fire Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price if he did not get enough votes to “kill” Obamacare: “He better get them, otherwise I’ll say, ‘Tom, you’re fired.”
Today’s vote is Republicans’ last effort to get something passed on health care before the expected recess in August.
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